Languages

[violence] genital mutilation

Nine Ivorian women aged 46 to 91 years were convicted of female genital mutilation and complicity of female circumcision, at Katiola, a town 400 km from Abidjan. In February they had excised thirty girls in a ritual ceremony. At the end of this first trial for excision, they got a one-year sentence and a fine of 50,000 CFA francs (75 Euros). However, these women will not serve their prison sentences because of their age, according to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA).

DAKAR - Human rights campaigners who have been struggling for years to eliminate female genital mutilation (FGM) in West Africa got a boost this week as news emerged that a group of Muslim clerics and scholars in Mauritania had declared a fatwa, or religious decree, against the practice.

Though the Indonesian government bannedfemale genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C)four years ago, experts say religious support for the practice is more fervent than ever, particularly in rural communities.A lack of regulation since the ban makes it difficult to monitor, but medical practitioners say FGM/C remains commonplace for women of all ages in this emerging democracy of 240 million - the world’s largest Muslim nation.

The dissemination of a Human Rights Watch report on 16 June 2010 on FGM, and the reaction by activists and NGOs to the report, ignited a controversy about the issue. Also, in the last couple of days and on 6 July 2010, the Association of Islamic Clerics in Kurdistan issued a “fatwa” on FGM in which parents [or guardians] of girls were given the choice of whether to genitally mutilate their girls.

Village chiefs, community members and women who perform female genital cutting have signed an agreement stating that girls in northern Kambia district will not undergo genital mutilation – or ‘cutting’ – before age 18.

This new website will be a resource to share documents and information about donor-supported work with a particular focus on sharing lessons learned and programs that support communities worldwide to enable them to abandon FGM/C within a generation.